The same but different

It’s amazing how sometimes life’s lens can make something that you thought was similar different.

A couple of weekends ago, I went for a walk with my husband. It was an 8 mile circular walk in the Hampshire countryside. We parked in an idyllic village and walked up hills, across fields and past cottages before returning to the same spot. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. By the end, my feet were aching but it felt good, sitting on a bench overlooking a village green, eating a guilt-free flapjack.

This weekend, I went for another walk with my husband.  It was an 8 mile, circular walk, this time in the Surrey countryside. We parked in a National Trust carpark, took a steep walk up Leith Hill (the highest point in Surrey) and then proceeded through woods, along a common, over stiles and past some lovely properties before returning to Leith Hill and enjoying the now cloud-free view and a guilt-free flapjack.  

It sounds a similar experience but as soon as we got out of the car to walk up Leith Hill, it started raining.  Light drizzle was forecast.  Pouring rain was not.  By the half-way point, I was sodden and my feet were sore. I was not in the best of moods and the last 4 miles were grim. I resorted to walking to music (in my head) – my chosen song being Stout-hearted men (the Hinge and Bracket version).  Dr Hinge is thumping the piano and Dame Hilda is giving it all she’s got and I march along in my own little world (husband – being a foot taller – has yomped off into the middle distance so at least he can’t see me stomping along like a red-headed Ewok). I have to say the view from Leith Hill was breath-taking but it has taken 48 hours for me to shake the memory of how hard that walk was compared to the previous one.

Life does that to you sometimes – you think something is going to be the same but it’s not. I guess it makes the world more interesting, that you never really know what you’ll get, even if you put the same money in the slot machine of life.

After my feet had recovered from their soggy walk, I took a decision (after consulting with a fellow writer) to rename my book trilogy. Having found out that the website for the trilogy was considered unsafe because it has the letters S, E and X in succession, it made me realise that people looking at the name might get the wrong impression of its content.  The story is more Jilly Cooper than Fifty Shades so Retrosexual has become Tales of a Modern Woman.  It’s wearing a different coat but it’s the same body underneath. The website has now become janesleight.com as I realised it was better to use my name not a book’s name for the website – then I’ll only need one website for anything I write. Doh!

It surprises me how much I learn on a daily basis, even at 49¼. It’s like I’ve never left school. The teachers have gone but life is still chucking daily lessons at me; some are because I’m doing new things like writing and publishing books and I’m a relative beginner at it. Other lessons come from being in a more senior position at work – with responsibility comes some difficult situations.

There aren’t any exams to take in the school of life but some of the tests can be tough, as friends of mine have found out to the cost of their health and wellbeing (hugs to you). I'm just glad I've got Hinge and Bracket to get me through.

Till next time.

Jane